We’ve all heard of the hamster wheel, the aquarium, and the rabbit hutch, but the cat tree is – apparently – the must-have accessory for any spoilt moggy.
In her new book, For Cats Only, published by Hatje Cantz, Zurich-based photographer Pascale Weber travelled through Switzerland, armed with her portable studio to photograph cats in and on their kitty domiciles – an ordinary accessory becomes an extraordinary piece of domestic theatre.
These house-proud felines of all shapes and sizes frolic, recline, play, scratch and flirt with the camera – it’s enough to induce intrigue at the very least, almost certainly a chuckle, and probably a few questions. Following the wide-ranging series of cats in trees, pictograms of the various scratching posts follow – tinged with humour and charm.
The images are still lifes in their own right, the cats partaking in their own micro-dramas as they attempt to defy gravity and keep their paws on their nine lives. Set against a boldly coloured background, the inhabited structures and stretching post become almost architectural, sophisticated and stylish, each with its own wildly different shape and function.
Swiss photographer Pascale Weber studied photo design at the Schule für Gestaltung in Bern and is known for vividly-coloured, graphic still life photographs, as well as collaborations with the likes of Sensai Cosmetics, Aqvarossa, Fujifilm and Frida Verde.
In For Cats Only she has created something which serves as both tongue-in-cheek entertainment as an education manual in how a cat tree need not be a worn-out eyesore in the corner of the room, but a bold centrepiece.
It’s a niche, certainly, but Weber and her precise lens are proving that even the most practical of pet accessories can have aesthetic – and comic – value. If you weren’t already a cat person, we presume you are now. §
